The Bob Schul Invite is coming up in August and in honor of the first Ohio schoolboy to go on to break 4 minutes in the mile, here is a list of the 21 runners who attended high school in Ohio who then went on to break 4 minutes for the mile later on in their careers.

Listed with name, year they first broke 4 min and who they ran for when they broke 4 min. In parenthesis is the HS they attended.

Of the 26 athletes on the list, 15 broke 4 min for the first time while still running for their college team (or in their redshirt year).
(Schul, Wottle, McAfee, Kennedy, Myers, See, Leslie, Kidder, Fallon, Alexander, Murphy, Prakel, Mau, Stanovsek, and Hall)

Of the 26 athletes on the list, 9 have gone on to qualify for the 1500 meter final in the USA Championship Meet at least once (getting thru the heats to the championship race).
(Wottle, McAfee, Ryan, Byers, Myers, See, Alexander, Murphy, Prakel)

Reggie McAfee was the first African-American to break 4 in United States history.

Why is Sam Bair missing from the above list? He didn't attend HS in Ohio. He was from Pa. He did, however, run sub 4 for Kent State in 1967.

I don't want to hijack the thread, but was thinking about how impressive it is that Stillwater High School (MN) has 4 graduates in the last 20 years that have gone on to break 4:00 for the mile, including Ben Blankenship. Scott Christensen, the coach, has spoken at the OATCCC conference.

Just saw a facebook post by Scott Fry. Fastest 1500 meter runners in Ohio history. He was going by memory so I double checked his stats just to make sure he was correct and he was, almost. He was one second off on one guy and 2 seconds on another. Pretty good memory! Here are the findings:

Rob Myers 3:34.89 run in 2005
Corey Leslie 3:34.93 run in 2013
Jeff See 3:35.21 run in 2012
Dave Wottle 3:36.2 Hand Time run in 1973
Colby Alexander 3:36.56 run in 2015

Tom Byers definitely deserves a mention. Although his fastest 1500 time was "only" 3:37.5 (HT), he ran a mile in 3:50.84. That is the fastest mile in Ohio history for an Ohio native and I believe he's the 11th fastest miler in U.S. history.

Just caught results on LetsRun from the Liberty Road Mile in Pittsburgh last Fri night. There was an elite division of 15 runners, 13 of whom were sub 4 minute milers.

Of interest to Ohio fans was the first ever head to head race between Colby Alexander and Jeff See. Both are having excellent seasons and at race time had run the #10 and #11 1500 meter times in the United States to this point in the season.

From the final times, blanket finish and money up for grabs, it looks most likely to have been a typical wait and kick, kickers race, which is right up See's alley!

We have 2 new sub 4 milers out of the Ohio HS ranks. Akron's Clayton Murphy ran 3:57.11 earlier this indoor season at Akron (paced by Tony Jordanek, another Ohio sub 4 miler) and former Versailles State Champ, Sam Prakel raced to a 3:57.95 clocking for Oregon a couple weeks ago.

I've updated the list that started this thread. Clayton and Sam become the 22nd and 23rd sub 4 minute milers with Ohio HS roots.

Ohioans rank 1-2 in the U.S. in the 1500 meter run with less than 3 weeks to go til the Olympic Trials!!

Colby Alexander (Strongsville/Oregon/NJNYTC) ran a USA #1 time on June 4th when he won the Furman Elite 1500 over an all-star cast in 3:37.32. That was only his 2nd race of the season. He beat the likes of 2 time NCAA mile champ from England, Lee Emanuel, last year's NCAA 1500 champ, Chad Noelle, 2 time Canadian Olympian, Nate Brannen, U.S. #2 ranked Johnny Gregorek, among a host of other top notch milers.

Colby opened his outdoor season 2 weeks prior at the Hoka One One High Performance meet in Los Angeles with a 2nd place finish to Hasan Mead, running 3:38.44. Other than Mead, he bested a top notch field that included Leo Manzano, Andrew Wheating, Johnny Gregorek and Pat Casey.

Colby's #1 USA rank only lasted 6 days though as another Ohio product, Akron's Clayton Murphy won going away at the NCAA Championships, running 3:36.38. Both Colby and Clayton have auto-qualified for the Olympic Trials (3:38.00 standard) but are just tenths of a second off the Olympic "A" standard (3:36.20). Colby's 3:36.56 from last year is 3 tenths off and Clayton's 3:36.38 is only less than 2 tenths off. Clayton will be gunning for the standard at the Portland Track Festival tonight and Colby will aim to go sub 3:36 at Princeton this coming Saturday.

Behind Clayton in that NCAA 1500 final were Brannon Kidder (Lancaster/Penn State) who finished 4th in 3:40.67, outkicking Sam Prakel (Versailles/Oregon)
who finished 5th in 3:40.84. Three of the top 5 NCAA milers this year were Ohioans!

It also looks like Murphy will own the fastest collegiate time in the nation this year at 3:36.33 while last year's fastest time went to Colby Alexander at 3:36.56. Those times are the 5th and 6th fastest times ever recorded for an American in NCAA history.

Just saw a facebook post by Scott Fry. Fastest 1500 meter runners in Ohio history. He was going by memory so I double checked his stats just to make sure he was correct and he was, almost. He was one second off on one guy and 2 seconds on another. Pretty good memory! Here are the findings:

Rob Myers 3:34.89 run in 2005
Corey Leslie 3:34.93 run in 2013
Jeff See 3:35.21 run in 2012
Dave Wottle 3:36.2 Hand Time run in 1973
Colby Alexander 3:36.56 run in 2015

Tom Byers definitely deserves a mention. Although his fastest 1500 time was "only" 3:37.5 (HT), he ran a mile in 3:50.84. That is the fastest mile in Ohio history for an Ohio native and I believe he's the 11th fastest miler in U.S. history.

Colby Alexander just became the fastest 1500 runner in the history of Ohio last night when he ran 3:34.88 to defeat an All-Star field that included three 2016 Olympians. The meet was the first meet in a series of pro, team scored meets called the Track Town Summer Series. This inaugural meet was held at Hayward Field. It was shown live on ESPN.

Here is the link to the race. The men's 1500 is at the 2 hour and 5 minute mark.

Colby Alexander just became the fastest 1500 runner in the history of Ohio last night when he ran 3:34.88 to defeat an All-Star field that included three 2016 Olympians. The meet was the first meet in a series of pro, team scored meets called the Track Town Summer Series. This inaugural meet was held at Hayward Field. It was shown live on ESPN.

Here is the link to the race. The men's 1500 is at the 2 hour and 5 minute mark.

Additionally, regarding my last post, Clayton Murphy has posted a top time as well. At the Stumptown Track Classic in Oregon a week after the NCAA meet, Clayton posted a 3:36.23 to move him into 6th All-Time on our Ohio list.

UPDATED LIST OF ALL-TIME FASTEST OHIO 1500 RUNNERS

Colby Alexander 3:34.88 run in 2016
Rob Myers 3:34.89 run in 2005
Corey Leslie 3:34.93 run in 2013
Jeff See 3:35.21 run in 2012
Dave Wottle 3:36.2 (Hand Time) run in 1973
Clayton Murphy 3:36.23 run in 2016

FLASH!!
I am a stats nut. As with all dedicated stats nuts, we tend to go back and double and triple check stuff.

I had a hard time knowing that Tom Byers could run a 3:50.84 mile but couldn't run a faster 1500 than his listed 3:37.5 HT.

So I searched the internet and found that he has a career page on AllAthletics.com. It lists his career 1500 PR as 3:35.75 from a meet in Bruxelles, Belgium in 1982.

That's more like it.

So here is the revised ALL-TIME OHIO 1500 LIST

Colby Alexander 3:34.88 run in 2016
Rob Myers 3:34.89 run in 2005
Corey Leslie 3:34.93 run in 2013
Jeff See 3:35.21 run in 2012
Tom Byers 3:35.75 run in 1982
Dave Wottle 3:36.2 HT run in 1973
Clayton Murphy 3:36.23 run in 2016

Colby Alexander ran a 3:54.94 mile at Friday night's Sir Walter Miler in Raleigh, NC. Colby took 2nd behind NJNY/Hoka teammate Kyle Merber. Merber finished 3 tenths of a second ahead of Alexander in 3:54.57. Both runners finished under the 43 year old outdoor state (NC) mile record of 3:57.3 (HT) set in 1973 by Ken Popejoy.

Nine runners finished under 4 minutes with a tenth runner at 4:00.06.

Colby's mile time moves him from 8th to 5th on the All-Time Ohio list.

NOTE: Dave Wottle's 3:53.3 was run in a race in Eugene, Oregon at Hayward Field. Pre invited Wottle to come and race him in a mile. Wottle outkicked Pre for the win in the second fastest time ever run by an American. Only Jim Ryun's World Record 3:51.1 was faster at the time. This race is featured in the "Fire On The Track" documentary on Pre.

NOTE: Colby Alexander ran a 3:50.30 mile at the NYRRC 5th Avenue Mile in 2016. That is the fastest mile ever recorded by an Ohioan indoors, outdoors or on a certified road mile.

In a field billed as the most competitive field of milers ever assembled on U.S. soil, Colby Alexander, Clayton Murphy and Corey Leslie repped Ohio very well at the 36th NYRRC 5th Ave Mile yesterday.

The pace was torrid the entire way as bonuses were being given out for fast times. The leaders hit 55, 1:53 and 2:51 at 440, 880 and 1320.

(link to race below)

Alexander and Murphy went with the leaders from the gun. Murphy had the lead at the 800 with Blankenship, Centro, O'Hare and Alexander right there.
During the 3rd quarter, Centro took over and started to push. He opened up about 10 meters on Alexander who by then was moving into 2nd.

With about 150 left Alexander had caught Centro, passed him and looked to be on his way to the win. However, Jenkins (like Centro, another Salazar protege) was sneaking up on the curb. With 30 meters left, Jenkins caught Colby and Centro. At the line Alexander had fallen a few steps behind but Centro looked left to make sure Colby wasn't coming back and as he did Jenkins snuck by on his right for the win!

Jenkins 3:49.4 #6 time in 5th Ave history
Centro 3:49.5 #7 time in race history
Colby 3:50.3 #12 time in race history (fastest 3rd place time ever)

Murphy held on for 4th in 3:52.3 and Corey Leslie finished 15th in 3:58.2

That was the fastest 1-2-3 finish in the 36 year history of the race.
Over 700 world class milers have competed here over the last 36 years.

Race organizers claimed this was the most competitive field of U.S. milers ever assembled on U.S. soil. Basically it was the entire top nine finishers at the Olympic Trials 1500 final minus 5th placer, Craig Engels (he is currently running XC for his college team).

We used to go to the 5th Avenue race to watch the great milers. What a historic race. Net drop of 9 feet but the drop is definitely negated by the uphill 2nd quarter. It starts a tad downhill but then climbs after the 440. If you run the 2nd 440 too hard you risk not having anything left at the end.

I can't recall anyone breaking 3:50 on that course in a long time. Very impressive times this year!

Sub-4 minute miler, Sam Prakel (Versailles HS), helped the Ducks to a top ten finish at the NCAA XC Championships in Terre Haute on Nov. 19.

Sam placed 82nd in the team scoring and 104th overall in 30:53 as number 4 man for the Ducks.

On a day that saw temperatures in the mid 30's and wind in the mid-20 MPH range, times were on the slow side but Sam was still able to come in at sub 5 minute pace for the 10,000 meter course. Not too shabby for a guy who specializes in the 1500!

With Sam having a year of NCAA eligibility left at Oregon, Clayton entering his first year as a pro running for Nike and Colby only one year removed from Oregon and running for Hoka, these three young milers have an incredibly bright future ahead of them on the national/international level in the1500/mile. (Not to ignore Corey Leslie, however, Corey tends to focus on the mile indoors but then races the steeple outdoors where he has made 2 Olympic Trials finals as a steepler).